Goots

Submission 38,439

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About

Goots refers to an image of a fat goose standing on grass named "Goots." Although the image was named on Twitter in early 2022, the original photograph of the animal comes from a 2014 Flickr post and was used in memes prior to the Goots trend. Memes using Goots as an exploitable image macro quickly spread to Reddit and Instagram, among other platforms going into January 2022.

Origin

"Fat Goose" Precursor

The original photograph that later became known as "Goots" was first posted to Flickr^[1] on June 14th, 2014, by the user Leeber. The image (shown below) was titled, "fat goose," and over the course of eight years, it received roughly 2,600 views.

The fat goose image was then reposted to Tumblr in March 2016.^[2] From there, it spread to Chinese-speaking meme circles in 2017. For instance, a meme was posted to the website Fabiaoqing^[3] on November 1st, 2017, which translates in English to, "I'm normal, I'm normal, I'm normal, I'm normal, I'm normal I don't need you in general" (shown below).

Origin of "Goots"

On January 17th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user CroixAlmer posted a tweet that read, "i made an algorithm look at 1,000 memes on Twitter and then produce its own, and this is what i got." The attached meme was a picture of the fat goose photo with a bottom caption reading "GOOTS" in all caps. They went on in their caption to say, "i am shaking and crying. 2022 is just beginning, i can't do this. this can't be how 2022 begins." The tweet (shown below) received roughly 81,400 likes in less than 24 hours.

Spread

In 2018, prior to the image becoming Goots, the fat goose photo was shared to Reddit's /r/AbsoluteUnits, ^[4] receiving 179 upvotes in six months. Three years later, on July 21st, 2021, Twitter^[5] user thinkwert used the image in comparison to a skinnier goose. The tweet (shown below) received over 400 likes, also in six months.

Goots 2022 Meme

As the Goots tweet began to trend on January 17th, 2022, following the tweet from CroixAlmer, Twitter^[7] user NovemberRomeo6 was the first to post a variant meme, captioning an image of a different goose screaming with, "Did Someone Say Goots?," receiving roughly 1,800 likes for the reply in less than 24 hours (shown below).

On the morning of January 18th, Twitter^[8] user MarcCapeMay referenced the 2016 meme BODE that depicted a fat cat with the caption "Bode" in all caps. Their tweet (shown below, left) received roughly 1,200 likes, also in less than 24 hours. That same day, Twitter^[9] user tonywalsh posted a meme that referenced the movie Ghostbusters, earning roughly 3,600 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

Most Goots memes were posted to Twitter on January 18th, 2022, with many referencing other memes like Wait, It's All Ohio? Always Has Been, ^[10] Stonks ^[11] and Pondering My Orb, ^[12] among others.

Also on January 18th, Goots was shared to Reddit's /r/meme^[13] receiving 117 upvotes in five hours. Goots memes were also posted to Instagram^[14] that day.

Overall, memes about Goots mostly centered on exploiting his likeness into other templates and making jokes about the original Twitter user's algorithm producing such a meme after being made to view 1,000 of them on the platform. For instance, a meme that touches on both aforementioned traits was posted by Twitter^[15] user Trashfirekitten on January 18th, using the Gru's Plan template and receiving roughly 1,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

BODE

BODE refers to images with the word "BODE" (short for "bodacious") overlaid on them. The images often are of overweight cats, and cat-like creatures, and is popular mostly on Tumblr. The original meme was posted on the 27th of November, 2016, by Tumblr user loghain (shown below). They detailed a dream they had where images of fat cats were posted with "BODE" on top of them, standing for "bodacious". Within 3 days, it gained over 50,000 notes.^[16]

Weed Eater

Weed Eater, also known as, "In The Future, Entertainment Will Be Randomly Generated," is a meme started from a 2003 VeggieTales episode where a robot randomly generates "Weed Eater" as the punchline for his jokes. As the quote and clip aged, internet users saw how accurately the show predicted absurd zoomer humor. The clip and quote from the show first received attention on Tumblr in 2015 but later spread to YouTube and Reddit, where screenshots of the robot saying "weed eater" were used. The first internet user to bring attention to the scene was Tumblr^[17] user beefbronson on April 28th, 2015 (shown below). The post received roughly 143,100 notes over the course of six years.